The Long Ear

What's New 8-23-24

Cimafunk
Thirty Tigers / Terapia Productions

Grammy-nominated Cuban medical-school student turned funk superstar Cimafunk is back with Pa’ Tu Cuerpa, a sonic experience as innovative as it is impossible to label; Caribbean but borderless, rooted in Havana but with echoes of Detroit funk and New Orleans bass, horns and street-corner vibes.

Ivan Cornejo
Interscope

There’s more to música Mexicana than corridos, and Iván Cornejo is proving that with his alternative sierreño sound. While his peers are largely pulling from hip-hop influences, the Mexican American star is tapping into the power of his guitar, cranking the genre to a rock-infused arena-ready level.

Fontaines D.C.
XL Recordings

The ever-evolving five-piece enter a new phase of transformation on their arresting fourth album – their most considered and intricately crafted work yet. Romance is an album of internal change galvanizing into the boundless, ceaseless vitality of the 11 breathless songs which leave the concepts of romance and apocalypse precariously intertwined.

Spirit of the Beehive
AstralwSaddle Creekerks

Spirit of the Beehive have fully solidified their stance as some of rock’s weirdest and best deconstructionists. They want you to think this is just normal rock ‘n’ roll music, but beneath these intentions are songs as complex as ever -- a downtempo smoke cloud of variegated synths, an assault of sludged out guitars, auto-tuned vocals, a flurry of strings.

The Alan Parsons Project
Cooking Vinyl

Reissue of the 1978 progressive rock concept album. Available on a variety of different formats including a limited edition Super Deluxe Box Set containing 4CDs, blu-ray including surround sound mixes by Alan Parsons, Abbey Road half-speed remastered 2LP, 12” x 12” 60 page hardback book & a replica press folder.

Wayne Shorter
Blue Note

This thrilling 2014 live recording captured Shorter’s acclaimed quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade at the Stockholm Jazz Festival in Sweden. The intrepid set includes some of the band’s favorite vehicles of exploration including “Zero Gravity,” “Smilin’ Through,” “Orbits,” “Lotus,” and “She Moves Through The Fair.”

Lainey Wilson
Broken Bow Records / BMG

Wilson has leveled up on this record, evident on the sonic experiment of “Ring Finger,” a funky country-rock number with electro-spoken word. Or “Country's Cool Again,” a joyous treatise on the genre and Western wear's current dominance in the cultural zeitgeist. “I think country music brings you home,” she says of its popularity. “And everybody wants to feel at home.”

Maggie Antone
Thirty Tigers / Love Big

A gorgeous mix of catchy melodies, evocative harmonies and raw tenderness display the breadth of Maggie's vocal prowess and penchant for honest lyricism. It is the charismatic and storied nature of Antone's song craft that sets her apart as an artist, Rhinestoned the debut befitting not only a whip-smart poet, but country's most enthralling new muse.

Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour
Provogue Records

Featuring guest appearances from Billy Gibbons, Brian May, and Tim Montana, Friendlytown is a must have for fans of Cropper's world-renowned guitar repertoire. "I feel great about this batch of songs. It's packed with great radio hooks, and features some of the best musicians in the world," says Cropper. "It's like guitar heaven."

Zeal & Ardor
Redacted

Avant-garde Swiss trailblazer Manuel Gagneux turns another page through Zeal & Ardor’s involving and endlessly creative fourth album. Though it rarely goes harder, Greif goes further and deeper than anything the group have done before – which is saying something, given the inherent uniqueness of everything Manuel touches.

Dark Tranquillity
Century Media

Endtime Signals channels all the anxiety, fear, and confusion of the world into 12 captivating, empowering tracks. It’s catharsis and darkness, determination, and approbation, parlaying all of Dark Tranquillity's innovatory songcraft in the Swedish melodic death metal sphere into an unparalleled wide-angled experience.

Nile
Napalm Records

The 10th album from world-renowned death metal icons boasts airtight technicality and unrelenting brutality, push each member to their furthest extremes both in artistry and performance. Their best album in nearly 20 years, The Underworld Awaits Us All puts Nile firmly back on top of the death metal pyramid.

Mushroomhead
Napalm Records

Masked metal masters Mushroomhead return laying waste to any preconceived notions of where the band is headed in their third decade of reign. Featuring pommeling drums, electro-industrial injections, spine-tingling keys and a twisting, multi-vocal attack balancing both brutal and melodic sounds, Call The Devil boasts everything from bangers to ballads.

cims spotify playlist

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